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233 Ways to Make Money

Many of our customers are entrepreneurs. In this post, I thought I’d try to light the entrepreneurial fire under some of our other readers by publishing the world’s longest list of ways to make money. I aimed to include as many ways to make money that don’t require special training as possible (and I’ll add to the list over time so bookmark it now). Without further ado, the list…

Update (April 20, 2011): We’ve grown considerably over the last few months and, accordingly, it’s time to scale our transcription team. If you’re interested in working as a transcriptionist for AudioTranscription.Org, please visit our transcription jobs page.

Update (December 2, 2010): If you’re interested in this list of ways to make money, you might also be interested in our list of 277 ways to save money.

Sell your services as a freelancer. One of the best ways to make money is to offer services including but not limited to web design, graphic design, copywriting, translation, etc. Some of the main freelancing websites include: Elance.com, Freelancer.com, Guru.com, vWorker.com, GetACoder.com (not just for coding) and oDesk.com. For a more comprehensive list of freelancing sites, visit this FreelanceSwitch.com article.

Run a college moving service. Do you have a truck or van? Run an end-of-the-school-year college moving service for fairly local students. Hang up flyers at the start of the finals period.

Become a holiday chef for hire. If you don’t celebrate Christmas and/or Thanksgiving, advertise yourself as a holiday dinner chef for hire. This will give your employer(s) more time with family.

Take headshots. Advertise on bulletin boards near college theater departments.

Take care of laundromats. Do you live near an unattended laundromat? The two biggest issues the owners of unattended laundromats face are (1) cleanliness and (2) the presence of quarters in the change machine (they also face security concerns, which they address with video cameras). You can take these two major concerns off the owner’s plate by just checking in once a day for a fee. The owner won’t have to go out of his/her way to do so and you’ll make some easy money.

Become a campus rep. If you’re in college, you can make money as a campus rep for a company. Here are some campus rep programs: Apple, Uloop.com, Koofers.com. Just search “campus rep” in Google.

Learn to build simple WordPress.org (self-hosted) websites (there are plenty of online guides). Provide these services to local businesses that don’t yet have websites. There are 1000s of free WordPress themes available, meaning you don’t need to know anything about design to be successful building simple WordPress.org websites (you just have to buy hosting, install WordPress and a free theme and add the business’ content).

Go to nursing school. While most of these ways to make money describe part time businesses, I couldn’t leave nursing school off of the list. That’s because, for many nursing students, it results in a nearly recession-proof, well-paid job that even allows you to move around quite freely.

Wait tables at comedy clubs. People often think about waiting tables at restaurants to earn extra money, but don’t forget to check out your local comedy clubs. Comedy clubs generally offer great weekend and night hours that work very well as a second job.

Replace home locks. I’ve tried to keep this list as accessible to as many people as possible (it’s mostly part time business opportunities that don’t require a lot of technical skill that you might not already have), so you might be asking yourself why a skilled task like this is on the list. The answer to that is that installing new locks on a door is very easy. Just go to a hardware store, buy new locks and read the minimal directions. You can also offer to install bars over people’s windows at the same time, if local crime is an issue. Make sure your advertisements (try Craigslist) appeal to the security conscious and to people who recently moved into a home and want the locks changed.

Create scrapbooks and photo albums for other people. This is a great part time job and one of the most enjoyable ways to make money because you can watch movies while doing it.

Rent out your garage. If you have extra space, you can make money by renting it out to the same group of people who would otherwise be using a company like PublicStorage.com. Find out how much companies like Public Storage cost and offer your garage at 25% less. Put both rates side-by-side on a flyer and post it on community bulletin boards. As with all of these suggestions, be sure to obtain proper insurance and legal protection.

Hold a Saturday bike safety clinic.Find a list of key bike safety topics on the Internet beforehand. What wealthy parent wouldn’t pay $25 to have their children learn all there is to know about bike safety? Advertise through the local PTA’s/elementary school’s newsletter and/or mailing list. Also consider advertising in church announcements.

Sell cold bottles of water on a hot day. Buy a large case from a wholesale store. A case of 24 bottles of water is $5-6 at a store like Costco. That’s less than $0.25 per bottle. Chill them and sell them for $1 each — a huge margin.

Become a part time wedding photographer for inexpensive weddings. Professional wedding photographers are extremely expensive. It wouldn’t be difficult to parlay your amateur photography skills into a part time business that could drastically undercut expensive wedding photographers.

Start a pick up and drop off laundry service. You’d pick up your clients’ dirty clothes and return them clean and folded within 24 hours. You’d need to do this in neighborhoods in which people’s lack of a laundry machine is not because of a lack of money, but because of space constraints. Get as many customers as possible, because adding another client doesn’t add a lot of work; you can do that customer’s laundry (and your own) at the same time. To advertise, hand out flyers in your city’s financial district (to reach wealthy potential clients) and post flyers near laundromats.

Lead hikes. You can advertise yourself from a few different angles: An experienced woodsman, a person who will expose kids to the outdoors (i.e. “educational babysitting”) or someone who knows the local natural history.

Become a part time handyman. Hand out flyers (better yet, attach refrigerator magnets to those flyers) to all of the houses in your area. When homes in your area have a problem, they’ll know to call you. Add your business to Google Places and always ask for referrals.

Become a college note taker. If you’re a college student, one of the easiest ways to may money is to become an official note taker for some of your classes. Contact your university’s disability office to see if there is any current demand for notes from your class. You can get paid to supply notes to those who are hard of hearing or have other disabilities. The best part is that you theoretically don’t have to do any additional work; just show up to the classes you’re already taking, take organized notes and then submit them.

Resell college furniture. Buy college student furniture for wildly depressed prices at the end of the school year (i.e. a used couch for $15 that someone is going to have to throw out because they don’t have anywhere to store it over the summer) and sell the pieces for higher prices at the start of the following school year (i.e. $100 for that same couch in the fall).

Help people declutter their homes. Some people simply don’t have time to organize their lives. Others simply can’t bring themselves to give their things up. Market yourself as an “organization consultant” (it’s an actual job, Google it).

Redeem cans and bottles for money. This can be especially profitable in areas that lack recycling receptacles. How? This will allow you to ask your neighbors for their cans and bottles because they’ll consider your offer to remove their cans a service and not a nuisance. In fact, you can just ask your neighbors to deposit their cans in a box on your front porch and you’ll recycle all of the cans for your neighborhood. That’ll make this money making opportunity as passive as possible.

Become a street performer. While a little far-fetched, if you know how to play an instrument, sing, juggle, do magic or even just stay perfectly still for a very long period of time, this could be an option.

Digitize photos using a scanner. How many of your neighbors have many of their older family photos in physical form only? Many people would pay for you to take their irreplaceable family photos and digitize them, so that they are much safer (in addition, they can now send them to whoever they would like, make infinite copies, etc.). All you need is a scanner and time. Put together a flyer describing your services and distribute it to all of your neighbors. In addition, post an ad on Craigslist. This is an excellent way to earn extra money because you can watch movies while scanning photos.

Rent out your DVDs. Make a list of your DVDs and print it on a flyer. Put the rental rate for your local video store side-by-side with your lower rate and distribute the flyers to neighbors/hang them in your neighborhood. Be sure to collect a security deposit from renters that would cover the replacement of the DVD should it break or not be returned. This will allow you to derive fairly passive income from DVDs you have sitting around. You can also list your collection on a DevHub.com site so people know which DVDs are available and which have been checked out.

Sell your gold (just be sure to sell it to a reputable company). There are lots of companies that buy broken and unwanted gold jewelry and melt it down.

Make soap at home (there are plenty of online guides) and sell it online. Try emulating the business model of this successful online soap salesperson (her Han Solo soap sells out almost every week): Luxury Lane Soap

Rent mini fridges to college students. A fraternity did this on my college campus. They bought a number of mini fridges and allowed students to rent them for the year for a fee. This was great for the renters, as they did not have to buy a bulky machine they weren’t going to take with them after college and they didn’t have to worry about storing it over the summer. The fraternity also delivered the bulky mini fridges at the beginning of the year and picked them up at the end of the year. If you’re renting out mini fridges, you could provide a deal to anyone who also rents a microwave. Also, you don’t need to purchase the mini fridges prior to the first time you rent them out. Just set up a booth with an example fridge and take orders.

On call flower and chocolate delivery. This one’s a little far-fetched: Start an on call flower and chocolate delivery service. When someone messes up, they can have your business card in their wallet and call you. You’ll have chocolates and flowers to them within a half an hour (that they can then bring home to their loved one). Hand out flyers in your city’s financial district.

Advertise on your car. I’ve covered wrapping your car in an advertisement elsewhere on this list, but that’s a situation that involves going through specialized companies that (1) recruit people who are willing to wrap their car in an advertisement and (2) recruit the companies looking to put their advertisements on people’s cars. You can cut out the middle man; go straight to local business owners and offer to put an advertisement for their businesses on your car for a small monthly fee (i.e. $50/month). Tell them how many miles you generally drive monthly and whether that driving is primarily local, regional or long distance. For ease, you can have the business owner print out a large magnetic ad from a site like VistaPrint.com that you can easily attach to your car and remove later on. Once you’ve struck an advertising deal with a local business (or a few), the income is entirely passive.

Rent out an extra room in your house to a long term renter (as opposed to renting a room out as a vacation rental with airbnb.com, as I suggest elsewhere on this list). Even if you don’t have a free room, consider all options: Can you share your room? Can you repurpose a room as a bedroom? Can your renter sleep on the couch? Can you sleep on the couch?

Start an innovative knitting business. Do you knit? Try repeating the business model of this really amazing home business: Reknit

Become a part time bike messenger. If you already exercise, why not get paid for it? Search Google for “bike messenger jobs” in your area.

Clean the outsides of people’s windows safely. Hardware stores sell hose attachments that allow you to turn a normal hose into a window washer (some even inject cleaning fluid into the stream of water).

Provide lunch catering services to local businesses, particularly to businesses that do not have cafeterias and are not near restaurants. You can create a system in which individual workers order simple meals from you (i.e. sandwiches) and you deliver them en masse at particular time; you can get permission to visit an office with a prepared array of food that workers can buy directly from you; or you can work with office management to provide a larger array of offerings for the whole office (the office’s management buys from you on behalf of the employees).

Sell umbrellas and ponchos. Buy umbrellas and ponchos in bulk and sell them in cities when it starts raining. Selling on the street without a permit might be illegal in your area, so always do your research.

Pawn or sell items at a pawn shop. If you’re considering either of these options, however, consider whether or not you really need the items. If not, why not just sell them on Ebay, Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace?

Train other people’s pets. Dog training is expensive. Read a few books on dog training techniques and watch a few DVDs. You’ll then likely be able to offer dog training services at a lower price than many of your competitors.

Become a late night motel attendant. This is a “cushy” job in the sense that most motels just need someone to sit at the front desk late at night and this attendant doesn’t really have to do much (you could use this time to make money in a different way). Get a list of motels in your area by searching your city’s name and “motel” and visit each of them to see if there are job openings.

Become a part time personal chef (either for regular meals or for specialty meals, like gluten-free meals or vegan meals). Search for groups of celiac disease sufferers, busy people and/or vegans in your area.

Sell earthworms. This is a bit of a far-fetched way to make money for most, but I like it for three reasons: (1) It allows you to turn your kitchen waste into something useful to you (it’s my understanding that worms eat everything from coffee grinds to moldy bread), (2) it requires very little effort to maintain and (3) after you establish a good relationship with a local bait shop, no advertising is necessary. Here’s a guide that describes how to breed and sell earthworms: eHow.com

Search for money you might be owed. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) estimates that one out of eight Americans has unclaimed property with an average amount of $1,000. This is money that can come from a number of sources such as a returned utilities deposit, a lost inheritance check, a check from cashing out your savings account when you were a kid, etc. If at any point these or similar items couldn’t be delivered to you, there’s a chance that they are in a state warehouse waiting for you to claim them. Visit Unclaimed.org to begin the brief search process for every state you’ve ever called home.

Hand wash cars (your customers can drive them to your house and your spouse can feed them lunch while they wait). While customers could just go to a mechanized car wash, some car-nuts prefer the precision of a hand wash.

Become a part time personal assistant. Save people time and make money by washing dishes, picking items up from the grocery store, collecting their mail, etc.

Tutor. Everyone has something they can teach, from basic math to college level English. You could help recent immigrants learn English or young kids learn cursive. Tutoring can be one of the most rewarding ways to make money, and it doesn’t matter if you didn’t do well in school; you can still teach young children how to read or other basic skills. Advertise on Craigslist.

Hang Christmas lights on people’s homes. This is a task that takes forever and many people would prefer to hire someone else to do it.

Use Claz.org to find part-time jobs (it’s an excellent website that searches Craigslist, which can be hard to navigate on its own).

Sell poinsettias door-to-door during the Christmas season. People can place their orders with you and you’ll only need to buy and deliver those you sell (the only real expense before you have customers is your time). Be sure to target wealthy neighborhoods.

Resell used furniture and computers from universities and schools. Contact educational institutions and see if they’re getting rid of large quantities of computers and/or furniture (they normally liquidate them at fire sale prices). Friends bought card catalogues for $50 each from the Yale University Library right before it was renovated and sold them for $800 each on Ebay. Used university computers are great targets for this because schools often upgrade them when they are still functional and liquidate the used ones en masse.

Advertise for stores at intersections. Approach restaurants and stores about holding a sign that advertises the restaurant or store at a nearby popular intersection. Here’s what you can tell them: (1) Hiring you is cheaper than what it would cost for a fixed advertisement at that intersection for a day, (2) most stationary advertisements are sold through contracts that last at least a month but you’ll work for as short as a day at a time, which means you can advertise short term events like a sale), and (3) your advertisement will pay for itself because you’ll bring in new customers.

Start a college laundry service. Start a laundry service for wealthy/lazy college students. You can do your own laundry at the same time. Advertise your services on campus bulletin boards.

Sell Mother’s Day cards to college students. Buy Mother’s Day cards in bulk and sell them on the street on college campuses just prior to the holiday. Your presence will not only serve as a reminder, but it’ll be a quick and easy way students can buy a card while they’re stressing about the end of the semester.

Hang flyers for local businesses (you can do this for many businesses — including your own flyer-hanging business — at the same time). Approach business owners offering to hang their flyers on community bulletin boards for them (within delis and supermarkets, on local kiosks, etc.). For an additional fee, you can even design the flyers. Earning money hanging flyers works best if you can create a sizable client list early, as then you can hang flyers for multiple clients in the same locations at the same time (very little extra work for each additional client).

Participate in paid focus groups. Use Google to find all of the market research companies in your area that hold paid focus groups. Get on their mailing lists. After filling out a brief questionnaire, they’ll email you when you might qualify for one of their focus groups. You can also try this website: FindFocusGroups.com

Teach a university gym class (sometimes general university fitness courses like “Abs Boot Camp” aren’t taught by certified fitness instructors).

Buy items at garage sales and resell them on Ebay (check the prices of similar goods on Ebay using a smartphone before you buy an item to resell on Ebay).

Sell quilts. Do you quilt? Design and sell custom quilts.

Start a furniture moving service for Craigslist. Do you own a truck or a van? Start a furniture moving business that caters to people buying furniture over Craigslist. In college, the biggest obstacle to buying dorm furniture on Craigslist was not the price (the prices are generally quite low), but that I didn’t have any way to get the furniture to campus. If you have a truck or van, you can make money by picking the furniture up and delivering it. The best part: You can likely advertise your services right in the furniture section of Craigslist and just wait for people to call. Don’t forget to advertise on college campuses as well, especially at the beginning of the year when students would like to buy dorm room furniture (you could also deliver from places like IKEA and Walmart).

Resell other people’s unwanted textbooks. Are you in college? A lot of people throw out textbooks at the end of the year. Collect them and resell them on Half.com and Amazon.com’s used books section. You can sell used textbooks that people were throwing out for $20-$150.

Go metal-detecting on the beach. While this is one of the more far-fetched ways to make money, if you’re the type of person who both needs to get some sun/be outdoors and could use some extra cash, why not pick up metal detecting as a hobby?

Grocery shop for other people. Not only can you make money while doing your regular grocery shopping, but you can likely broker a deal with your clients in which they pay the full retail price for items and if you can find a coupon, you keep the savings (on top of your per trip fee). The best part: In addition to shopping yourself, you can shop for several other clients at the same time. Some online retailers like Walgreens.com offer free shipping on high volume purchases (and you can use coupon codes from sites like RetailMeNot.com), which means you might not even have to leave home to do your shopping.

Deliver food to hungry bar goers. Cook a dish at home, put it in a rolling cooler and bring your food to bars (particularly around closing time). The “Tamale Lady” is famous for this in San Francisco.

Embroider birth samplers to make some extra money. Find the Lamaze classes in wealthy areas and pitch your services to expectant mothers with money.

Clean houses for extra money.

Start a part time carpet cleaning business. Rent a carpet cleaning machine from a grocery store or hardware store and charge people a bit below what professional carpet cleaning services charge.

Take outdoor photos of high school and college seniors. Soon-to-be-graduates often purchase graduation photos, many of which are taken outside and thus don’t require a studio. If you have a passion for photography, this is one of the most enjoyable ways to make money. Post ads on Craigslist and hang flyers on college bulletin boards.

Work as a golf caddy (the nicer the golf course, the larger the tips). This is great part time weekend work. There are also college scholarships available to past caddies: Evans Scholars Foundation

Sell leftover garage sales goods on Ebay. Approach people having garage sales about selling their unsold stuff on Ebay and Craigslist for a large commission. They’re likely going to throw these items out or repack them anyway.

Repair electronics and appliances. Can you fix nearly everything? Then you can easily make money by starting an electronics/appliance repair service. People would drop off their broken items at your house and you’d call them when you’re ready. Be sure to add your business to Google Places.

Sell other people’s stuff on Ebay. Many people either don’t know how to do this or simply don’t have the time. If you don’t know how to list an item for sale on Ebay, don’t worry; it’s easy. People could drop their items off at your house and you could spend a month trying to sell them (try listing them on Craigslist too). If an item sells, you’d take a commission.

Sell your old video games. You can sell them on Ebay or take them to a video game store that buys used games. Here’s a way to decide which games you’d like to sell: Put a piece of tape over the part of the game that you insert into your console. If, after three months, you haven’t removed the tape, sell the game.

Become a cheap alternative to a professional exterminator. Home Depot and similar stores sell home pest control kits as well as bug traps for a variety of insects. Buy a home pest control kit and start advertising your part time pest control services, provided local, state and federal laws permit you to do so.

Check to see if your employer offers a 401(k) matching funds program. If so, one of the best ways to make money is to contribute the maximum amount that will be matched to your 401(k) every year.

Start a drop shipping company to support a local business or several local businesses. Wikipedia explains, “Drop shipping is a supply chain management technique in which the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead transfers customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer.” Approach local business owners about listing their products for sale online in marketplaces like Ebay or using an online storefront like Shopify. You’d charge a commission on each sale generated by your efforts. Since you’d be running a drop shipping operation, you wouldn’t actually have to buy, pack and ship the items yourself; you would just transfer the list of sold items and the customer details to the store (you could also modify this so that you do go into the store, buy the item, pack it and ship it, basically using the store’s inventory as your inventory).

Design logos for small businesses. Do you have graphic design skills? List your logo design services on all of the freelancing websites and hand flyers out to all local businesses. You could also sell your designs on 99Designs.com.

Run an alterations business. Do you sew? It is possible to run a stripped-down alterations/clothing repair business right out of your home.

Start a weekend gutter cleaning business. All you need is a ladder, some gloves and a truck. Post your ad on Craigslist. This one tip can make your one person business ultra-competitive: Offer substantial discounts to owners of adjacent lots. That way, you can simply walk to the next house (and, because you don’t have to pack up, travel and unpack, you can still make money doing this). Not only will this allow you to undercut your competitors’ prices, but you also might be able to set your prices low enough that you’re able to convince some people who currently clean their own gutters to hire you.

Become a life coach. If you enjoy giving advice and helping others, this is one of the best ways to make money. There are lots of online guides about what it takes to become a life coach. There are also a number of online life coach directories that you can list yourself in when you’re ready to advertise your services.

Convert VHS videos to DVDs. How many people in your neighborhood do you imagine have family movies on VHS tapes? There are plenty of simple online guides that explain how to convert VHS tapes to DVDs (just search “convert VHS to DVD”). Put together a flyer describing your services and rates and distribute it to all of your neighbors. Post your ad on Craigslist, as well. This is one of the most efficient ways to make money because you can earn money another way while the data is transferring from the VHS tapes to the DVDs.

Become a commission-based freelance salesperson.Here’s how. You can also often find freelance sales jobs on standard freelancing websites.

Run a small catering operation from home. If you have a passion for cooking, this is one of the most enjoyable ways to make money. You can offer your best dishes or dishes that satisfy special dietary restrictions (i.e. gluten-free, vegan, kosher, etc.) to your neighbors or other clientele.

Run a “make your own lip balm” station at local fairs. If there’s a recurring local fair/flea market near you, consider renting a booth and offering a “make your own lip balm” station. I saw this at a student festival recently and there was a constant flow of customers. Why lip balm? It’s simple to make (lip balm recipe) and people love being able to pick their own flavors. Check out FestivalNet.com for a directory of upcoming festivals.

Organize a speed dating event. While it sounds a bit far-fetched, it’s really quite simple and it’s in a high-value niche. Rent out a room in your local community center, recruit men and women to participate, charge $20-$30 per participant and have some food prepared.

Advertise yourself as a local personal concierge. If you’re very organized, you could join a concierge company (search your city followed by “concierge service”), but you could also just look up what services these companies offer and post a list of your services to Craigslist. You could also create a simple free website with DevHub.com. Here’s a guide from Entrepreneur.com about how to start a personal concierge business: Entrepreneur.com.

Paint rooms in other people’s homes. While exterior painting requires a lot of experience, ladders, tools and generally a team, interior painting is far easier to learn and a good way to make money. Advertise your services on Craigslist. Ask happy customers for referrals.

Check out Craigslist’s “ETC” (odd jobs) section and “part-time” section. Go to Craigslist. Look under the jobs header. Click on “ETC” or “part-time.”

Sell audio versions of books in the public domain (you don’t have to record the books). Visit Librivox.org, a website that encourages volunteers to create audio versions of books in the public domain (a book enters the public domain when its copyright expires) and then aggregates all of the versions. Download some of these public domain audio books and put them onto CDs. Sell the CDs on Ebay for a price that is less than what they sell for as audio books on Audible.com, the main online audio book vendor. Librivox.org states, “We… decided we didn’t want to add any restrictions to the recordings we make, which are based on public domain books. This means others can use our recordings however they wish, including for commercial purposes. We would prefer if people acknowledged us if they do use our recordings, be we can’t force them to… the books we record are public domain, and we want our recordings to be public domain too.” Librivox’s policies could change at any time.

Collect free items from Freecycle.org and sell them (if permitted by your local Freecycle group) on Craigslist and Ebay.

Start a delivery service for local restaurants. Why don’t all restaurants deliver? Approach restaurant owners and offer to start a delivery service for them.

Sell “starting college packages” (come up with a better name). If you can grocery shop, you can do this. Simply come up with a list of supplies every college freshman needs and hand out flyers to parents and students over move-in weekend. On the flyers, have different packages available (i.e. the “medicine cabinet package” might contain everything from aspirin to Tums to DayQuil and the “dorm furniture package” might contain a desk lamp, a wastebasket, a standing lamp, sheets for a twin bed and more). You’ll save parents time over move-in weekend that they’ll likely want to spend with their child and you’ll help students that don’t have transportation to stores avoid a huge hassle. Buy the items in bulk to save money and deliver the packages after parents have left.

Sign up for and actively use loyalty program cards (store-specific discount/rewards cards). While rewards cards are generally thought of as a way to save money, they also often provide free items as rewards for shopping (i.e. a supermarket will send you a $10 check for every $500 you spend).

Rent your car out for a couple of hours or days at a time. If your car sits in the driveway or on the street most of the time anyway, renting it out is one of the most painless ways to make money. RelayRides.com or WhipCar.com both allow you to do this.

Help people handwrite the envelopes for their holiday letters. While it’s easy to print labels off of a computer, many people believe handwritten addresses look great. With a little direction, you might even be able to write many of the holiday cards.

Babysitting. If you love working with children, this can be one of the most rewarding ways to make money. Use SitterCity.com, Craigslist and your contacts to get clients. Always ask for referrals.

Guide a high school student through the college application process. Busy parents will love this service and chances are that many of the busiest parents could pay for it. You can offer editing/advising services if you’d like, but it’s a huge help alone to parents to just have someone to help their student keep on top of multiple deadlines for sometimes up to 15 college applications — and that doesn’t include the financial aid application.

Resell ink cartridges on Ebay. Collect ink cartridges (by informing people that you are going to keep them out of landfills) and resell them on Ebay (there’s an aftermarket for empty ink cartridges) or refill them with a home kit and resell them on Ebay. It’s actually quite easy to collect empty ink cartridges: Simply put up ink cartridge recycling boxes (with permission) in colleges. There are sizable companies built on this business model — collect cartridges passively, refill them and resell them online.

Sell nonfunctional vehicles. If you have any non-functioning vehicles or large pieces of equipment, they still have value, and selling them is one of easiest ways to make money while cleaning out your garage. Sell them for scrap metal to a salvage yard.

Search for the student jobs section of university websites in your area. Even if you’re not a student, this will give you an idea of which departments need help. If you feel you could do the work for less, contact the professor or staff member directly and offer your services. Because a lot of student jobs websites post the hourly rates right on their sites, you can offer to work at a price below what they’re willing to pay if they’re initially reluctant to take a non-student. Though you might be told you need to be a student, you could also land the job, in which case you’ll have a flexible part time job, as it was originally meant for a college student.

Teach English abroad. Not only can you choose a country where even a low salary allows you to live very well, but you can also use this foreign work experience to help you land a better job when you return. Most people think it’s difficult to land English teaching jobs abroad. Some places are easier than others (China, Korea, etc.). One Audio Transcription employee once bought a plane ticket to Spain without much of a plan except to find work when he got there. A friend suggested he look at all of the job postings on the walls of Irish pubs in Madrid. She was right; while it can be difficult to land a job with an English language program if you’re not certified, it can be fairly easy to find a job tutoring the child/children of a wealthy family simply by looking in expat areas (like Irish pubs in Madrid).

Start a grocery delivery service for college students. Where one Audio Transcription staff member went to school, it was a three mile walk to the grocery store. He would have paid someone with a car a little bit of money to pick up groceries for him. He also would have paid someone to pick up and drop off his dry cleaning (the drycleaner’s was also quite a hike).

Become a part time landscaper. Do you work out? Substitute your workout for a part time landscaping/gardening job. It’s not as good of a workout as going to the gym, but you can certainly get some good exercise and make some money while pulling weeds and/or removing bushes.

Sell your DVDs. For most movie watchers, buying a DVD is a losing proposition; unless you watch it more than four times, it probably makes more financial sense to just rent it. Here’s a way to decide which DVDs to sell: Put a piece of tape over the opening to the box. If after six months, you haven’t removed the tape, sell the DVD.

Return unwanted items. Do you have unopened items you’ve purchased lying around? Returning them is one of the easiest ways to make money. Rather than trying to sell them online, just take them back to wherever they came from. Even if you can only get store credit, you’re more likely to sell the store credit on Ebay for nearly its full value than you are the item itself.

Teach music. If you are a musician, this is one of the best ways to make money. Become a part time, home visit music teacher (teach piano, guitar, etc.).

Become a LiveOps.com agent (work from home making and taking phone calls). LiveOps.com is a service that allows you to work as a call center agent from home. You can take inbound sales calls (i.e. people responding to TV offers) or you can make outbound calls (i.e. you’d call the number provided and attempt to make a sale). You can sign up for as little as 30 minutes at a time and pretty much any time of day. Agents are paid per minute of call time and/or on commission. LiveOps.com is very popular with stay-at-home-moms (it’s one of the best ways to make money while your kids are sleeping, for instance).

DoMyStuff.com. Complete tasks people have listed in exchange for money.

Increase your tips. Do you already wait tables? Check out these ways you can increase the size of your tips.

Hold a bake sale, particularly after a concert or right when parents pick their kids up from elementary schools.

Help prepare people for the SAT, GRE, GMAT and other tests as a tutor.

Film videos for eHow.com and other Demand Media websites. Click here for more info.

Hold a computer class for “technically-challenged” adults. Teach some of the most-desired computer skills. Some examples for possible topics include how to use Facebook, Skype and Twitter; how to text on a cell phone (especially using T9); how to add music to an iPod; how to use an iPhone; how to make minor changes to images; and how to set up an email account up so that it can be read in Gmail. You could introduce your students to websites they might enjoy like Pandora and teach them how to navigate YouTube. Many parents might also like to know how to set up Google Alerts and/or Google Reader to follow their favorite topics.

Go gold panning. This is one of the more far-fetched ways to make money: Go gold panning on your next family vacation. Use BlackCatMining.com’s gold panning map for potentially profitable gold panning locations.

Sell your textbooks. Are you in college? Sell your textbooks at the end of the school year but consider all of the options in order to maximize price: (1) Selling them back to your campus bookstore, (2) selling them to websites that buy up used textbooks and (3) selling them yourself next fall on Half.com and Amazon.com’s used books section.

Waterproof wooden decks. If you can paint, you can do this.

Learn to code for free with MIT’s OpenCourseWare and then sell your programming services on freelancing websites.

Save time with a virtual assistant and get a second job. Hire a virtual assistant for $3-$4/hour on oDesk.com and use the time you save to get a second job at a higher rate.

Find tenants for landlords (offer to take over the whole tenant search process including putting up signs, posting to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, etc.). Advertise your services in the Craigslist housing section (if permitted). Get paid for each tenant successfully placed.

Sell your expensive dresses (keep the less expensive ones). If you are a former shopaholic, this is one of the easiest ways to make money. Use RentTheRunway.com instead.

Store college students’ things over the summer. If you live near a college and have some extra storage space, this is one of the best ways to make money. Hang up flyers at the start of the finals period.

Pick up a part time retail job at your local mall. To get a mall job as quickly as possible, print business cards from VistaPrint.com, print your resume, dress nicely and drop into every store you’re interested in (bringing a copy of your resume and a business card). Politely explain who you are and what you could offer each store. Don’t only apply online (that’s what everyone else is doing — you’ll likely get lost in large online hiring pool).

Help local businesses advertise. Create and hang flyers around town for them, post the flyers using PaperG.com, list their events/offerings on Facebook and Craigslist and even set them up with a basic website using DevHub.com.

Become a part time feng shui consultant. While some consultants have spent years learning about feng shui, you could always race up the learning curve by reading Feng Shui for Dummies. List your services on FengShuiDirectory.com.

Sell ice cream in parks. Rent a rollable ice cream freezer and sell ice cream in parks on the weekends.

Sell foreign items on Ebay. If you are planning a trip abroad, this is one of the best ways to make money. Before you leave home, find out what items you’re likely to encounter in street markets (vendors disconnected from online sales channels) on your trip. Figure out how much these items sell for on Ebay. When you leave, you can stock up on these items and sell them online when you get back. Be sure to factor Customs regulations and importation fees into your business model.

Rent out a room as an art studio. If you have an extra room you’d like to rent out, but it doesn’t quite fit the bill as a bedroom, consider renting it out as an art studio to a local artist.

Rent your car out for several months. I highlight very short term owner-initiated leases (i.e. an hour or a day) facilitated by specialty websites elsewhere on this list, but consider getting the lease transfer papers in order and renting your car to another person for awhile.

Become a private sports coach. Were you captain of a team in high school? If so, one of the most enjoyable ways to make money is to put those skills to use as a private sports coach (i.e. a private soccer coach for a particularly good player).

Become a bouncer. If you are the right size and have the right “look,” you can be a bouncer on the weekends. Few other jobs let you make money on Friday and Saturday nights. Approach local clubs and ask what bouncer opportunities are available.

Find a “cushy” job. A cushy job is one that lets you do your homework (if you’re in college) or freelance work while you’re “working.” Some late night security jobs, some library jobs and a lot of university attendant jobs (i.e. being at the front desk in a student center) fit the bill. These jobs offer some of the simplest ways to make money because you essentially get paid for being present.

Mow lawns. This one tip can make your one person business ultra-competitive: Offer substantial discounts to owners of adjacent lots. That way, you can simply walk or ride to the next lawn (and, because you don’t have to pack up, travel and unpack, you can still make money doing this). Not only will this allow you to undercut the prices of some of the bigger companies, but you also might be able to set your prices low enough that you’re able to convince some people who currently mow their own lawns to hire you.

Power wash siding on the weekends. Rent or buy a power washer and wash homes with vinyl siding. Here is a website that will help you get started: HomeTips.com

Paint murals. Can you paint? Many people would like to have a wall or two painted with a special scene, especially in their kids’ rooms. Advertise your mural-painting abilities on Craigslist. Ask for referrals from satisfied customers. You could also negotiate with local paint suppliers to distribute your business card/flyer to their customers (they would receive a commission).

Start a birthday cake/cupcake delivery service for college students. Some parents would like to send their kids baked treats on their birthdays or during finals. You can bake the cakes yourself or offer to order, pick up and deliver them from a bakery (you can work directly with a bakery to get good rates). Hand out business cards to parents on move-in day and over Parents’ Weekend.

Fiverr.com. Offer a service on Fiverr.com, a website that bills itself as “the place for people to share things they’re willing to do for $5.”

Sell snacks at local youth sporting events (most of which happen on weekends, making this a one of the best part time ways to make money). You’ll need to, of course, have the permission of the groups that oversee the area and sporting events.

Run your own care package business. All you have to do is print up a flyer with your offerings, hand it out to parents on college campuses on move-in day and Parents’ Weekends and wait for people to call you. Then, buy the supplies, assemble the care packages and ship them. You don’t just have to advertise to parents on college campuses; try putting flyers up on community bulletin boards in supermarkets.

Become a certified yoga instructor:Here’s how. If yoga feeds your soul, teaching it to others is one of the most rewarding ways to make money while deepening your own practice.

Become a virtual assistant (basically, a personal assistant over the internet). Here’s an overview of what it’ll take to get started as a virtual assistant. To advertise, list yourself in one or more of the many virtual assistant directories like this one and add yourself to the major freelancing sites.

Become a part time bodyguard. If you have the build and the confidence, this is one of the best ways to make money. List your services for free on Bodyguards.com.

Help people prepare to move (move furniture, pack boxes, etc.).

Rent out your tools. If you live in an apartment complex or city, you can hang flyers and/or door hangers that advertise the tools you have and the amount you’d charge for a day’s rental (make sure to collect a security deposit that would cover the replacement of the tool, should it break or not be returned). For many people, it doesn’t make sense to go out and buy an electric drill because they’ll only need it for a day. Charge $10 to rent it for the day (instead of the +$100 it would cost someone to buy one). This will allow you to derive fairly passive income from tools you already have.

Fix basic computer issues for a fee. Computer repair services are expensive. Try setting your prices low and posting flyers on college campuses. Often, addressing computer speed issues (which can be your main service) is just a matter of running up-to-date adware, spyware and virus checks in addition to running a registry error scan, defragmenting and checking for any uninstalled operating system updates. It’s all easy stuff. If you don’t understand what I’m talking about here, would you pay someone $20 to run these checks for you, especially if all you had to do is bring your computer to the college cafeteria between certain hours?

Become a part time taxi driver. If you enjoy driving and meeting interesting people, one of the best ways to make money is to drive a cab.

Become a part time bartender. The training doesn’t take long and it’s a skill set that will remain relevant indefinitely. Best of all, it’s fairly recession-proof.

Run a lemonade stand. It’s a classic for a reason.

Rent out a room as a vacation rental. List a room in your house (or your entire house) as a vacation rental on airbnb.com, which is billed as “an online marketplace allowing anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space.”

Buy used books at garage sales and resell them on Half.com and Amazon.com’s used books section. If you bring a smartphone with you, you can even check the expected selling price of each book based on its condition before you buy it at the garage sale. More advanced used book resellers use a barcode scanner attached to a PDA that gives them buy/ignore recommendations based on the bookstore’s (or garage sale’s) price, the book’s condition and market information about that book on Amazon. Click here for more info.

Start a part time dog walking business. This is one of the most enjoyable ways to make money for lovers of dogs, the outdoors, and exercise. List your services on Craigslist and DogWalker.com.

Bake custom cakes for hire, just make sure your cakes are cheaper than the local bakery, better than the local bakery or satisfy special dietary restrictions (i.e. gluten-free, vegan, kosher, etc.).

Make and sell crafts and jewelry. Are you artsy? One of the best ways to make money is to make and sell crafts and jewelry on Etsy.com.

Get a paper route.

Drive college students to the mall. Some colleges are in the middle of nowhere. Start a business that picks students up from campus and drops them off at the local mall/shopping center and then picks them up later in the day. Don’t shuttle individual students back and forth. Make it easy on yourself and have the same campus pick up time and campus drop off time every Saturday. You might need a special license for this, depending on where you live.

Sew fleece into blankets. Do you live near a university in a cold environment? Sewing fleece into one side of students’ comforters is one of the easiest ways to make money. Hang flyers around campus to advertise your services.

Paint white front doors in neighborhoods that have a lot of white front doors. Go door-to-door offering your services. Why front doors? Front doors frequently need a touch up. They’re also small enough to do quickly and can be repainted cheaply enough to allow homeowners to make snap decisions about whether or not they’d like their front door repainted. Why white paint? It’s probably the most common front door color, meaning you’ll still have a lot of potential customers even if you only carry around one paint color. Don’t spend time trying to sell people on changing their door color (that’s a hard sale); instead, try to convince them to allow you to touch up their existing color for a modest fee.

Buy Christmas decorations when they’re cheap; resell them when they’re expensive. Buying Christmas decorations at depressed prices and reselling them next year at just below full price is one of the simplest ways to make money. Immediately after Christmas (or really any ultra-commercialized holiday), buy Christmas supplies (cards, decorations, etc.) at a steep discount (many stores offer up to 90% off on holiday goods after the holiday has passed). Hold onto the goods for 10-11 months and then list them on Ebay at a price below the market price for similar goods.

Coach a youth or high school sports team. If you enjoy working with young people, this can be one of the most rewarding ways to make money.

Become a creativity coach for hire. I didn’t know until recently that this is a job, but apparently there is a market for this type of coaching. Here’s the website for the Creativity Coaching Association, which provides information on certification (which may or may not be necessary) and a directory that you can use to advertise your services.

Trim dogs’ nails in parks. Show up in a park on the weekend and offer to trim dogs’ nails right on the spot for a fee. Order a trimming device from PediPaws.com (I’ve never used one, but it looks like a simple, safe and cheap battery-powered device, which would be perfect for this weekend business).

Write for revenue-sharing websites. There are a lot of companies that allow you to publish nearly whatever you’d like and will pay you a portion of the advertising revenue your article(s) generate. These companies include Associated Content, Bukisa, eHow.com, Helium, HubPages, Squidoo, Xomba and Suite101. There are also plenty of fixed price (as opposed to revenue-sharing) freelance writing opportunities. Fixed price freelance writing jobs are covered elsewhere on this list.

Participate in university medical and psychology studies. Check out campus bulletin boards, particularly near your local university’s psychology department, for study announcements.

Hold a garage sale.

Become a day laborer. List yourself as a day laborer on HireAHelper.com. You can also list yourself as a mover, cleaner and/or a lawn/garden assistant.

Wrap holiday gifts for a fee. You can work with a local store or mall to wrap their customers’ gifts or you can offer to help wrap other people’s gifts in their homes.

Sell trendy homemade buttons. A friend did this in high school. Just buy a button press machine, follow what’s trendy, make some buttons while zoning out in front of the TV and sell them on Ebay. Before you just guess at what’s trendy, check Ebay to see what types of buttons are currently selling well. The best part of this opportunity to make money is that you don’t actually have to make the buttons ahead of time; just make them as you receive orders.

Build websites for small businesses. You can use DevHub.com. Drop into small businesses and ask if they have a website. If they don’t, be sure to have some examples of your work ready to show them.

Make jewelry and sell specific pieces of jewelry with specific Facebook advertisements. If you are creative and enjoy jewelry-making, this is one of the best ways to make money. You should include a picture of the specific piece of jewelry in the Facebook advertisement, as well as a title specific to that piece of jewelry. Since you pay for each click on your advertisement, you’ll want to be sure that the people clicking on your advertisement know what the product looks like and are already very close to buying when clicking (so you don’t pay for many clicks that don’t result in sales). There is a man on Facebook who sells surfing necklaces this way and appears to be doing quite well (his advertisement for the same surfing necklace has been live for +2 years).

Sign up to receive Groupon.com deals and refer your friends to Groupon.Groupon.com will give you $10 the first time a friend of yours makes a purchase. You can do this for as many friends as you’d like (i.e. if you get 10 friends to sign up for Groupon and five make their first purchase, you’ll get $50).

Become a certified physical trainer. If you are passionate about fitness and want to help others improve their personal health, this is one of the most enjoyable ways to make money.Here’s how.

List books for sale online on behalf of small bookstores. Approach small bookstores about listing their books on Half.com and Amazon.com’s used books section for a commission. They’ll increase their sales numbers and you’ll get paid. Win-win.

Sell your treadmill and go running outside. This is one of the quickest ways to make money, and the extra fresh air and vitamin D you’ll get from running outside may even help you think of more ways to earn extra income.

Send out birthday cards/order flowers on a schedule. Your busy clients can give you a list of birthdays and anniversaries at the beginning of the year (and you’ll obviously know the dates of Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and other relevant holidays) and all you have to do is plan to prepare cards and put them in the mail at the right times.

Rent out your parking space. If you have an extra parking space, renting it out is one of the easiest ways to make money. You could do this on a long term basis (in which case, consider advertising your parking spot on ParkAtMyHouse.com or YourParkingSpace.co.uk), on a recurring basis (i.e. if you live near the beach, you could rent out a parking spot on the weekends to a passing motorist) or just do this once in awhile when a local event (i.e. a public fair) causes a parking nightmare (hold up a sign to passing motorists to advertise). If you don’t have an extra parking spot, perhaps you could allow people to park in your yard.

Cash back credit cards. Get a credit card that provides cash back on a variety of purchases. Use the card, but pay it off in full every month. Here is a comparison of cash back credit cards from CreditCards.com.

Wait in line for other people. While this may sound a bit ridiculous, people will pay for you to hold their spot in line when they care enough about being first; it is one of the easiest ways to make money. This will work for concert ticket lines, lines for tickets to movie openings, etc. Lobbyists and reporters hire people to stand in line for them on Capitol Hill in order to make sure they get seats at Congressional hearings. Consider the following quote from the InformationWeek.com article “Get Paid To Wait In Line For An iPhone”: “People with free time and entrepreneurial spirit are posting ads on Craigslist offering to wait to buy iPhones for other people — charging as much as the cost of the iPhone itself.”

Sell energy efficient light bulbs door-to-door. While this may seem odd, I’ve listed it hear because it’s easy to make the value proposition to customers clear: “These bulbs cost $10 (and I’ll install them), but they’ll save you $25/year in energy. Each bulb will end up saving you $15!” You’ll have to come up with the cost and energy savings numbers for your specific bulbs, but you get the idea. Buy the energy saving bulbs in bulk online or at a wholesale store like Costco.

Take trash to the dump. If your town doesn’t have trash pick-up, does it make sense for everyone on your block to drive their trash to the dump? No. Offering to take other people’s trash to the dump for a fee is one of the quickest ways to make money.

Thanks, HomeList! We put a lot of hours into this list because we thought it was important for there to a comprehensive resource for people interested in becoming entrepreneurs, people who are unemployed and people who are underemployed. The economy might be rough, but there are options!

How about scanning people’s documents, not just pictures? Also, I’m about to start offering apartment move-out cleaning to property owners and college students (so they have a better chance of getting their deposit back).

These are both great suggestions! I’ve never thought about digitizing documents instead of pictures. As for your pre-move out cleaning idea, that sounds great! I wonder if you could get the landlords of some large apartment buildings on board (basically to name you as a preferred service in exchange for keeping their buildings clean). Implicit in that recommendation would be that if departing tenants hire you, they can be sure they’ll get their deposit back (unless there are severe damages).

Home List definitely has it right! That is one massive list of ways to make money. The sheer volume alone will help people find some way to make money. This list will definitely get the ideas flowing. There must be something on it for everyone. Great list!

Most of the ideas are good provided you don’t live where I live and almost all of the jobs like lawn mowing, gutter cleaning, and handyman work are VERY flooded fields. Other than that, this is a good site to find good ways to make money. As with any job, most of these ideas require some research and hard work. Thanks for the ideas!

This is one AWESOME LIST!!!!!!! I have been researching business ideas for the last several months, perhaps even a bit longer and I got almost one hundred new ideas from your list. Thanks SO MUCH!!!!!!